Scantily Clad Strangers
by skwirelygurli
Summary: Austin and Ally are trapped with their daughter for Christmas. Auslly.


**Scantily Clad Strangers, an Austin and Ally oneshot**

**I do not own Austin and Ally. Requested by tumblr anon. Merry Christmas!**

He was fine with Turkey, Texas. And Cowes in the UK, once they had gotten that whole passport thing out of the way (some person at the airport had recognized his name and may have screamed it to the public, only to get him surrounded by the flash of camera phones and autograph pens). After that they'd decided to travel by car, where no one would be checking their IDs. Kept things much more low key, private.

No more of this "When does your new album come out Austin? Are you done with music?"

No more, "Is baby number two on the way?" (That one caused a lot of mirror staring for Ally, who had to be convinced that no, she wasn't looking round.)

No more, "Mommy, the camera flash hurts my eyes."

Ally had been in the spotlight for a while, but Squeaks, as he so lovingly called her, as her voice did just that, especially on the high notes, was fresh to it all. Six year olds aren't meant for spotlights. They're meant for crayons (the blue one is still broken), and cookies (none of which better be broken if she has anything to say about it) and cartoons.

Well, she would be, if the TV wasn't broken.

Why does everything have the ability to break? The heat, the power, his rise to success.

Okay, that last one is completely his fault.

If only Ally hadn't been so sweet and pretty and all around lovely and-

No. If only Jimmy hadn't been such a prick. He cut him off for ten years.

It'd been nine years and six months, and he's trapped in a hotel in Buffalo, a guitar strapped to his chest. He may have stopped him from performing for the world, but he had his own little world.

She was making the bed squeak.

Oh no, not like that. They're too classy to make love on a hotel mattress.

Well, they were with a child in the room, but that's another story that he's not telling.

He sang to her a song he wrote, one that had yet to surface in the public eye. But his darling Squeak had been hearing it for years. Every Christmas, no matter where they've been (always named after an animal, which could really squash a traveler's dreams, but it made his girl happy) he'd been playing her lullaby.

_He's coming down your chimney girl, bringing presents to the whole wide world. So close your eyes, lay down your head, and have merry dreams in green and red._

Nearly ten years to work on his song writing skills and he's still not as good as his wife.

Psh, as if he ever could be.

The snow came down harder.

"The guy at the front desk said that it's not going to clear up for a few days, and then who knows how long until we can be dug out. I told you we should have turned around when we saw how much snow there was." Ally shut the door behind her, wrapping her scarf tighter.

He shook his head. "I've always wanted a white Christmas."

Squeaks pulled the curtain back to expose the white cityscape below them. Looks like his wish had come true, in bounty.

Probably should have left after that first night. The concert they were going to see that night was obviously canceled. The star hadn't even made it past the New York border without hitting a wall of white.

Postponed, due to this white (word he won't use around his daughter) falling from the sky.

"They misspelled snow, Daddy."

"Huh, that is some autocorrect."

So now what were they going to do? They were stuck in the hotel, and he was honestly too cold to strip down to his swim trunks to hop into the hotel pool.

The Jacuzzi, to his displeasure was out of order.

He couldn't take a hot shower with Ally either. Again too classy for that.

Again, with the child, who had jumped off the bed to stick her nose against the glass, the song long finished.

"I can't even see your car out there." Ally hovered over Squeaks, running her fingers through the knot forming in her hair. It had been pulled into pigtails, adorned with jingle bells, but it was still getting twisted in who knows what.

Her daughter sprung away from the window. "Mommy, you're going to ruin my hair."

Running off to the bathroom, she came out with a bottle of travel shampoo and combed it through her hair. Daddy used hair gel and he was cool. She didn't have gel, but this sticky stuff seemed to be doing the trick.

Austin laughed at his daughter. Maybe it wasn't too cold for a dip in the pool, to rinse her hair out. He could go an afternoon without gel. After all, who would see him? They're trapped in a snow storm.

Turns out, a lot of people could see him. A lot of people in bikinis, with their rolls hanging over their bottoms. He covered his ladies' eyes.

"What are you doing?" Ally asked, lifting his hand from her face. She kept ahold of it, lacing her fingers in his.

"You don't need to see this. It's gross." An older woman walked by, a cheek hanging out.

A lower, non-face cheek.

"Daddy, I went to Uncle Dez's pool party before. I've seen a lot worse." He'd moved back from LA, with Carrie in tow, and a new friend who took way too long to get over a crush on Ally.

He'd growled at him, like a bulldog. Very territorial. He hadn't peed on her or anything, but there had definitely been a few instances of marking. Pre-child, pre-wedding ring.

He should have known better than to bite.

Puppy instincts again.

"Oh my gosh!" A fan ran towards them, slipping on a puddle. Rammed straight into Ally, who caught him, only to fall into her husband.

"Are you okay?" He asked, to which they both responded positively. A quick nod of the head (bobbing really, on the fan's part) and then right back into the rush of words.

"Oh my gosh. It's the Moons. Ally, I just love your songs. And I used to listen to you all the time when I was little. What happened, Austin? Take time off for this little cutie?" Squeaks shrunk back at the hand flying towards her cheek.

He shrugged nonchalantly, though it killed him inside. He could tell the truth about what happened. How Jimmy had ruined his career, as promised. But who would believe him?

_Manager Cuts Super Successful Artist From Record Label_

Not even he would believe that, without thinking the artist started it. Like ridiculous demands of money or the kind of pot that doesn't hold flowers.

He had one demand.

Let him be with Ally.

"I was thinking about putting an album out next year." The idea had been running around his head for days. It hadn't been said aloud until now, with jaws dropping, eyes widening.

Wow, that was loud.

"We can never have a normal vacation, can we?" Squeaks pushed up her floaties, dipped into the shallow end of the pool.

He stepped in beside her, surprised by the warmth of the water.

The fan followed. "Sing us something?"

Ally exchanged a look with him. The contract technically had banned him from public performances (though he'd joined church choir, after agreeing to instill some religion in Squeaks until she was old enough to decide for herself if she wanted to believe in anything, he'd never taken a solo), but this was just an intimate gathering of strangers.

Scantily clad strangers who probably had camera phones and would post him on the internet.

There's no way Jimmy is still checking up on him. It's been almost a decade.

He whispered something into Squeaks ear.

Moments later, he had the entire room singing Jingle Bells with him.

Jimmy couldn't yell at him for participating in a sing along started by his daughter.

He spotted a camera in the corner, and he couldn't check until he gets the power to charge his phone back, but he's going to enjoy this Christmas. He could figure things out when the storm passed. The snow storm, because the media storm was going to follow. They always find these things out. (Like when Ally got pregnant, how they could not be alone for more than five seconds.)

"What do you want this year for Christmas?" he asked, despite having intercepted her letter to Santa and stocked the tree with a few gifts. They'd be there when they return home.

"I already got my wish." She bounced back onto the bed.

"What's that?" He looped an arm around Ally as she sat on the bed next to him, patting her hair dry with a towel.

Setting the towel down, she responded for her daughter. "She wanted to see you perform."

"I want you to be happy, Daddy."

He reached and dragged her into his arms.

"You two are the best."

He may have been trapped, and he might end up getting into a lot of trouble, but he knew one thing was certain.

He's not going to be alone.


End file.
